Cub Foods goes for LEED Gold with new St. Paul grocery store

Discount grocery store giant Cub Foods has opened a store in St. Paul, Minn., that is on track to achieve LEED NC 2.2 Gold certification.The new store, located in St. Paul’s Phalen neighborhood, has also received EPA GreenChill Gold-Level Certification. The award is given for outstanding use of environmentally-friendly refrigeration technology. With the aid of Design Services Group, a full service food-retail development services firm, the store reduced its refrigerant charge by 65% compared to the industry standard. In addition, the store’s refrigeration system was completely leak-tight at installation.

The 62,900-sf Cub Phalen store has a number of sustainable features, including:
• 44 skylights that illuminate 75% of regularly occupied spaces using a solar-powered GPS system that tracks and redirects sunlight as needed.
• The first commercial parking lot in Minnesota to be illuminated using only LED lights, which need to be replaced every 40 years and provide 50% energy savings.
• Nearly half of the waste from buildings torn down on the construction site was recycled and reused as fill.
• 35% savings in lighting costs compared to typical Cub stores.
• A maintenance-free floor that eliminates the need for chemicals during the cleaning process.
• A landscape irrigation system that uses 50% less water than typical systems.
• 75% of the building construction waste will not end up in landfills. Instead, it will be recycled and turned into other useful materials.

“The challenge for us as a design team was to deliver to Cub its most energy efficient store to date,” explained DSG lead architect Bryan Slattery. “We had to significantly reduce our typical carbon footprint, while keeping the Cub brand intact from an aesthetic and operational standpoint, and to do all of this in the most cost-effective manner possible.”

If the store is approved for LEED Gold Certification as expected, it will be the first supermarket in Minnesota and one of only 15 retail stores in the nation to be Gold-certified.

DSG provided architecture and engineering services, store planning, interior design and décor, project management and equipment procurement for Cub’s new Phalen store.